E3 2002: Galleon

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We take a look at the spiritual successor to Tomb Raider.

By Gavin Frankle

Toby Gard's beleaguered title, Galleon, made its playable debut at the show this year. The title shows a lot of promise, with solid voice-acting, fantastic animation and an intriguing premise, however, the highly unpolished state of the E3 version leaves a lot to the imagination. For starters, the framerate is incredibly erratic, ranging from mediocre to awful. The camera work too, leaves a lot to be desired. Ignoring those hiccups (which are, after all, a symptom of a game in development) for a second, the game is an intriguing, if not wholly original adventure.

The demo grants access to two different areas: Neptune and Caves. The Neptune excursion sees the game's protagonist stumble upon two suspicious characters, one of whom casts a spell on a nearby statue of King Neptune, causing it to come to life and attack the player. The statue is huge, towering out of the screen. In fact, Captain Rhama is only as large as the statue's feet. I had absolutely no idea how to defeat the character and while trying a particularly aggressive strategy, ended upon on the business end of his overly large trident. This of course, killed my character instantly.

I then tried out the Caves portion of the demo, which proved significantly more fruitful. Enemies ranged from bare-chested pirates to crab/scorpion-like creatures. Hand-to-hand combat proved rather stale, requiring little more than constant button-tapping to defeat enemies. That said, Captain Rhama's fighting animations, which range from intricate back-flips to a flurry of punches are incredibly smooth and nicely done. What struck me as the most intriguing aspect of the title however, was the lithe, jumping ability of the main character and the associated jumping portions. One particular section of the demo required traversing a series of vertical-logs, thirty or so feet above a pit filled with creatures. I misjudged the leap between the last two logs, however just as I thought I'd fall to the pit below, Rhama grabbed a hold of the log with one hand, before swinging himself up in one clean motion.

Tomb Raider's jumping puzzles were clunky and tiresome, however, Galleon appears to be on the way to realizing Toby Gard's original vision, or at least improving upon it significantly. The title has a lot of time left in development, which certainly doesn't bode well considering the length of time it's already spent in development. That said, technical issues aside, Galleon remains an adventure title to keep your eyes on.